Last June, Denver Post editorial page editor Vincent Carroll wrote a thoroughly researched, pragmatic assessment of the future of north Denver’s Interstate 70 viaduct between Colorado and Brighton boulevards.

That’s seven months ago.

It’s time for Denver officials to stop fiddling. Three of Denver’s most isolated, overlooked urban neighborhoods — Globeville, Elyria and Swansea — will continue to be the city’s most isolated, overlooked urban neighborhoods unless officials in Denver hit the oatmeal circuit and advance a strong, unified position about the future of the city’s most poorly served neighborhoods.

Consider this:

• The National Environmental Policy Act requires state transportation officials to conduct an environmental impact study (EIS) to evaluate “the quality of the human environment” prior to building any federally funded transportation project.

• The draft EIS for this 1.8-mile stretch of I-70 has taken longer — by nearly four times — than any in the 11-year history of the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT).

• In 2008, CDOT spent $32 million to repair the viaduct, adding 10 to 15 years to the life of Colorado’s largest and most notable “failing” bridge.

Last month, concerned about the paucity of political support for the Swansea cut-and-cover (lowering the highway 40 feet and covering it with a grass esplanade) as well as shrinking federal resources and escalating demands on state bridge replacement dollars, CDOT commissioners directed staff to examine the commitment to replace the viaduct. If the mayor and City Council don’t unite around political and financial support for the Swansea cut-and-cover and a second cover at Steele and Vasquez, their timidity will have consequences. The commission will advance three alternatives in the spring 2014 supplemental draft EIS:

1. Reconstruct the viaduct to meet federal standards for lane and shoulder width, without adding lanes.

2. Rebuild the viaduct, adding two new tolled express lanes in each direction, either shifting the structure north, requiring relocation of Swansea Elementary School, or south, requiring relocation of the Purina plant.

3. Rebuild the portion south of Swansea Elementary below ground with two new tolled express lanes.

CDOT’s draft alternatives do not include urban design consultant Ron Straka’s visionary plan to eliminate the Vasquez interchange, lower the viaduct between Vasquez and Steele streets and add a second cover strong enough to support a structure.

Nor have Denver elected officials made sufficient noise about the importance of linking Globeville, the neighborhood west of the National Western and the Platte River, to its neighbors, the river, transit and the city.

If city officials don’t push hard for the Vasquez cover and coalesce around the third alternative in the draft EIS, CDOT can kick this can — forgive me — down the road.

In the decade-long vacuum of Denver’s political leadership, dreamers and schemers have filled the void. Other interests — academics, architects and activists who don’t live in the neighborhood — continue to fight to reroute I-70 from Colorado Boulevard to the Mousetrap or from Quebec to Wadsworth.

I don’t know if a decade from now the stupidity of running interstate highways through cities will be obvious. Or whether Congress will begin to invest in our country’s failing and obsolete infrastructure. Maybe transit, ride-share, car-share and cycling will predominate urban transportation solutions. Perhaps pigs will fly.

If none of the above occurs, what will 10 more years of the status quo do to these neighborhoods?

Civic activist Susan Barnes-Gelt can be reached at barnesgelt@gmail.com or @SBGtweets.

There is no rhyme or reason, and nothing that could pass for a justifiable goal or an ounce of sense, in the infliction of misery on the 800,000 federal employees either on furlough or working without pay.